Lights in the sky

Last night we had an impressive thunderstorm pass quite close, though it didn't actually douse us (we had to wait until this morning for that).  Much more impressive than the lightning were the lightning bugs, though.

Fireflies are a (now) familiar sight to me here in the summer.  For about two or three weeks now we've been watched them lazily fire their little yellow lights off as they buzz over the grass around twilight.  But last night was something altogether more spectacular, with hundreds, maybe thousands of fireflies sparkling in the trees outside our house and around the neighbourhood.

It's hard to explain exactly what it looked like.  My best attempt was that it was like a Christmas tree covered in flashing lights.  But I think Mrs Walles hit it on the head, saying that it was like watching camera flashes going off at a concert.

The lights looked much whiter than the usual fireflies we see, and they flashed much faster, and they were in the trees, not the grass, so I wonder if these were a different species.  Or perhaps it was larvae, hatched from eggs laid in the trees and putting on a light show for want of anything better to do.  I'm not sure what the explanation is, and I'm definitely not an expert on the matter, but it was something quite different and extraordinary.  Very flash!

Groundhogs galore

Continuing the week's wildlife theme (and it's hard not to, the critters are so prevalent...even as I write this I'm watching a squirrel have a good old scratch on a tree bough in the back yard) here are some slightly better pictures of my neighbour the groundhog from early yesterday morning.

I had hoped they would be even better than this, but at least you can see a bit more of the body than in the shots I posted earlier.  I might have missed it altogether, it was just chance that I was staring up the hill and spotted the movement against the brush.  It wasn't until it made its way over to the lawn, though, that it started standing out well against the background, so that's the shots I've posted.

Ultimately it preferred the low brush, though, you can see it's already pining for shelter here, and it soon returned to the dense undergrowth.  Not before I got this one in a standing pose, though.

It was in sight for a long time quite close to us and it didn't scurry off when I opened the door to get a better look.  It's quite a big critter as you can see, its body alone is about the same length as a squirrel including tail. And this one is quite small.

With any luck we'll see more of our groundhog friend as the summer goes on.  In the meantime I'll content myself with the squirrel, which is now having a nice wash.  Never a dull moment!

Wildlife update

I couldn't deliver any pictures of the Amish hard at work raising our deck, but I did get a great picture of our female cardinal this morning, perched atop the newly levelled bird feeder, all decked out in her finery.

The groundhog was closer to the house this morning so I took more photos of it too - that  was when Mrs Cardinal (as we call her) presented herself for this shot.  I still have to go through the groundhog shots and see how they came out.  The little critter was closer than usual but that might have been cancelled out by the mist that was hanging around this morning.  If there are any good ones I'll post them soon.

On the level

It occurred to me that I never posted an update on how the Amish were getting on with our deck, despite promising to do so.

The reason I forgot was that the two Amish fellows who did the job did it so quickly that they were off almost before I knew it.  They finished reattaching our deck to the house almost before I'd written the post announcing their arrival.  They also worked on a neighbouring deck, so they were in the vicinity for about another hour, but then they were off.

Mrs Walles tried to snap a photo of one of them while they were working but the opportunity never arose.  I had wanted to photograph the hat that one of them left on the ground while he worked, but I didn't even manage that.

I went out to inspect the results while they were working on the deck next door and they asked very cheerily if it was better, and we said yes - it was good to be able to walk out there without wondering if it was going to fall down under you.  That was the extent of our interaction, though.  The neighbours, native Pennsylvanians, just took it in their stride and were talking away trying to convince them to do extra work on the deck (which they did).  All in all it took them about 90 minutes to reattach two decks to the houses and replace the railings on one of them.  And then they were gone.  Raising a deck a few inches isn't quite in the same league as raising a barn, but it was still intriguing to watch.

Return of the groundhog

Mrs Walles and I were looking out the window the other day when we suddenly spotted something different in the trees at the top of our back yard - a groundhog! This is, amazingly, the first one that I've seen this season.  It's not as if they are uncommon, and we have even passed several on the side of the road in the car, with me missing them each time.  We've since seen this groundhog several times, though not as close as that first day.

It seems likely that it is the same one we saw last summer, since its feeding in the same places.  It is smaller than the one last year, but possibly that's because groundhogs hibernate, so they look smaller in the spring when they emerge compared to the autumn when they settle with a good supply of excess body mass to tide them over the winter.

Groundhogs are quiet little critters and they are built like tanks so that not much worries them.  Even so, they have a habit of keeping an eye out while feeding by rasing their head every few seconds to see what's going on around them.

This one wasn't too concerned by us even when we went outside to take its picture.  We were probably too far away to be perceived as a threat.

These are the best photos of our new neighbour that I have at the moment. I'm hoping it will come closer as time goes by and if I get some better pictures I'll post them here.

Common grackle

The bird of this week is the common grackle, common by name but certainly not by nature.  These birds really stand out because, although they are jet black in dull light, their feathers are iridescent in bright light making them look blue, green and bronze.  The vivid yellow eye helps, too.

The males are slightly more flashy in their colourings than the females.  They are quite large birds, about thirty centimetres long, but they are also quite shy.  They stalk our back yard in groups taking long strides looking for food in the grass.

Occasionally one will come up on the deck to take some seed or a nut that's dropped there.  For a while there was even one that would hang off our bird feeder, despite being far too big to use it effectively.  I think its strategy was to shake seed out of the feeder on to the ground below where it could eat at its leisure.  The cardinals do something similar.

Just recently we noticed a whole new aspect to grackle life.  They've been breeding and their young 'uns are out of the nest and almost as big as their parents.  But mum and dad haven't got the kids off their hands yet, instead they've been out showing them the ropes.  Males and females share the feeding responsibility, according to my references.  All week we have been watching adults with one or more dull-coloured offspring following them around.  Mrs Walles snapped these ones together last weekend.

Sometimes the little ones will find something on their own, but if the adult finds something the kids will chase after it, mouths wide open and squeaking like a baby bird to try and get their share.  It's quite hilarious to watch and hear because the "little" ones are not very little but the way they behave you'd think they'd just been hatched.

I don't see any outside right now.  It is Fathers Day in the US today, so maybe the adult grackles are taking it easy while their offspring bring them breakfast in nest. Then again, maybe it's just the neighbour's lawnmower scaring them away.  A grackle can dream, though...

Freshly minted

Mrs Walles came in the door at lunch time today with a big grin on her face carrying an envelope that contained - drum roll please - my green card!  I am now (and have been for over a week, it seems, though I didn't know it) officially a permanent resident of the United States.  Phew!

Right now I'm most excited because it means I don't have to worry about immigration forms and the inevitable anxiety they produce in me for another two years, when it needs to be renewed.  It's taken thirteen months to get to this point from when we first began the official immigration process.  We haven't had any problems along the way, it all went smoothly and often faster than we anticipated, but it is just a long, involved and expensive process so it is good to have it over and done with.

More importantly, though, it means that Mrs Walles and I can get on with things without any niggling fears in the back of our minds about the permanence of my residence here.  I've got the certificate to prove it now.  It also means that I can leave the country again (or rather get back in if I leave), which is a relief.  Not that I was getting cabin fever, or anything, but it's good to know you can leave if you want to.

I won't put up a picture of my new card, I'm sure that's against the rules, and I wouldn't want anyone to take my nice shiny new toy away after I worked so hard to get it.  I will say that, although "green card" is just informal slang for it, it is in fact green.  Green, and shiny, and mine!  Yay!